Apparatus for sharpening blades.



J. W. LESLIE.

APPARATUS FOR SHARPENING BLADES.

APPLICATION FILED PI IB.13,1908. 909,098.

Patented J an. 5, 1909.

UN PAH lliit @FFICE.

JAMESQW. LESLIE, F WAKEEIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSZGNOR TO LESLIE SAFETY RAZOR COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS,

A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

APPARATUS. FGR SHARPENING- BLADES.

No. eoaoss.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented. Clan. 5, 1909.

Application filed. February 13, 1908 Serial No. lltflld.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES W. LESLIE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Wakefield, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improve ment in Apparatus for Sharpening Blades, of

. quickly and accurately sharpened, such term including honing, may be.

The apparatus herein illustrated as one practical embodiment of my invention is destropping, etc., as the case signed to sharpen razor-blades made of flat, re a tively thin steel, and I have so constructed arranged the apparatus that the sharpening means acts with a combined rotary and traversing motion upon the edge of the blade, with practically the same effect as is produced by the most skilfulhand stropping or honing. 'lhat'is, the sharpening surface acts upon the edge of the blade in precisely the way the surface of a hone or strop acts when the blade is drawn across the same longitudinally thereof and with a slight transverse movement, so that the ac tion is. progressive from one to the other end of the blade.

I have also provided means whereby first one and then the other face of the blade is presented automatic lly to the action of the sharpening means, will appear lulreiiiaftor.

sentcdtangentially to the sharpening surface. Whenever the direction of rotation 01 the latter is changed the blade is acted upon automatically to reverse the face which is to be acted upon, and the change in the'blade 'faceis e'llected prior; to the change in the rotation of the sharpening surface, so that it is impossible for the blade and sharpening surface to cooperate when the latter is moving toward instead of away from the cutting edge. I

The various novel features of my invention will be fully described in the susbjoi-ned Specification and particularly pointed out in the following claims.

Figure 1 is a top plan View of a blade.- sharpening apparatus embodying, one form of my present invention, either moving to the right or just in readiness to be reversed, Fig. 2 is an enlarged. left hand end elevatien. thereof, viewing Fig. 3, with the handle broken off and with the disk-like carrier broken out to show the gear behind; Fig. Sis an enlarged View partly in longitudinal. sec-- tion on the line 3--3, Fig. 1., looking toward; the left; Fig. l is a transvr-erse section onthe line ll Fi 3, looking toward the right, but with ating with the sharpening means; Fig. 5 is a. side elevation of the central seat for the blade at the right of the line 5-51,.v Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a top plan View of the main; ortio n'. of the blade-holder, with ablade t erein', showing how the blade may tilt slightly in.

the blade in elevation and coopez' the holder; Fig. 7 is a side elevation of one end of a razor-bladefor which this sharpen. ing device is arranged.

l have herein shown the operative parts of the sharpening device mounted on a. frame 1.- having a fixedly attached handle and. up turned, parallel sides 3, the lower portions-oil said sides having rotatably mounted therein a transverse shaft l, one projecting end of the shaft having fixedly secured. to it a: disk.- like carrier 5 preferably provided with a tread 23 of leather, rubber or other suitable material. A large gear 7 is secured to or forms part of said carrier at the inner face thereof, the gear-hub 8,; Fig. 3', abutting against the adjacent side 3 of the frame; A similar carrier 9 is loosely mounted on the opposite end of the shaft 4; andisheld in: place by a nut 10, the carrier hub 11. ad acent the frame side acting, with the hub to prevent longitudinal movement of the shaft. in the frame, the carrier having a leather or other tread 12.

A. cylindrical member or roll 13, of wood or metal, is loosely mounted. on the shaft and the roll has at one end a segmental recess 14-, Figs. 2 and 3, into which enters a pin 15: on the shaft, so that there is thus a lost-motion connection between the rotatable member 13 and the shaft, and hence with the carrierssupporting the latter.

When the frame is moved bodily the car;-

riers, if supported by a fiat surface=,.such as a. 1-16 table, will rotate in the direction of such bodily movement and when the pin 15 is at either end of the recess 14 the member or roll 13 will rotate in unison with the shaft and carriers, in the same direction.

Referrin to Figs. 1 and 2, if the frame be moved to t e right the carriers and shaft will rotate in the direction of arrow 16, Fig. 2, and the roll 13 will be rotated in unison with the shaft, but if the movement of the frame be reversed the direction of rotation of the carriers and shaft will be reversed, but the roll 13 will not be revolved in the reverse direction until the shaft 4 has made a part revolution, nearly one-half a revolution as shown in Fig. 2, being ,required to bring the pin 15 into engagement with the lower end of the recess 14. The roll has a short rest period every time bodily movement of the frame is reversed, as will be manifest, the rotation of the shaft and' carriers thereby being established in the new direction before rotation of the roll is begun. During this non-rotative period of the roll the position of the blade to be sharpened is changed or reversed, to present first one and then the other face of the blade to the action of the sharpening'mem- .ber, as will be described.

The sharpening member is made in the form of a cylindrical spiral 17 upon the rotatable member or roll 13, and the sharpening member maybe a relatively narrow strip of leather, treated canvas, or other material which will present a sharpening surface. A spiral band of fine emery may be used, or if t e blade is to be honed the sharpening member will present a cylindrical spiral of honing material, and as shown herein the spiral makes somewhat more than one complete turn around the roll 13.

When the edge of the blade is applied tangentially to the sharpening member the rotation of the roll causes said sharpening mem-, ber to act with a combined rotary and traversing motion upon the blade, the sharpening surface acting upon successive portions of the edge from one to the other end of the blade, closely approximating the most skilful hand manipulation when a blade is stropped 0r honed.

A rocking, reversing blade-holder is mo unted on the frame above the sharpening i'nember, said blade-holder comprising a shaft 18 rotatably mounted in the frame-sides 3 and bladeretaining or locking means carried by the shaft, which latter is above and parallel i to the shaft 4.

i The shaft 18 has pinned or otherwise secured to it a collar 19 outside one of the sides, and next the collar a pinion 20 is rotatably mounted on the shaft and frictionally connected thereto by a spring 21 coiled around the'shaft between the pinion and a nut 22 fixed on the shaft Pinion 20 meshes with an intermediate pinion 23 rotatably mounted on a stud 24 on the frame side and in turn mesh ing with the gear 7, see Fig. 2 so that the pinion 22 rotates in the same direction as the gear, but at a higher speed. "When the resistance to rotation of shaft 18 is greater than the force of the frictional connection between the pinion20 and the shaft the pin- I ion will turn thereon, but otherwise the shaft and pinion will be rotated in unison. I Adjacent the inner face of'the left-hand frame-side 3,, Fig. 3, the hub of a locking disk 25 is pinned to the shaft 18, cooperating with collar 19 to prevent endwise movement-of the shaft, the disk having an annular flange 26 on its inner face. locking disk 27 has a long hub 28 loosely surrounding the opposite end of the shaft and rotatably mounted in the right-hand side 3 of the frame, Fig. 3, the outer end of the hub being counterbored to receive the inner end of a spring 29 coiled about the shaft and held in place by a nut 30. The spring presses the inner, flanged face of the disk 27 against a collar 31 pinned to the shaft 18 and having a radial seat 82 of greater width than the thickness of a blade, as best shown in Fig. i, and a central, larger collar is fixedly secured to the shaft, having a radial seat 34, to loosely receive the blade, but not so wide as the seat 32, 5 and 5. The flanged disks 25, 27 cooperate with the ends of the blade to be sharpened and retain said blade in the seats 32 and 3-1, so that the blade is securely held in the blade-holder, the latter being herein shown as arranged to cooperate with a thin, flat blade 55, shaped at its ends to present shouldered portions 36, Fig. 7, the edge of the blade being indicated at 37.

To apply the blade to the blade-holder the disk 27 is retracted against its spring: 29, and the blade is dropped into the seats 32, 34, and one of the shouldered portions 36 is pushed under the-flange 26 of the disk 25, whereupon the disk 27 is released and its spring pushes it inward against the. adjacent end of the blade, the flange onsaid disk 27 overhanging the shouldered part 36 at that end of the blade. The blade is now locked in the holder, but it may tilt out of axial alinemont with the shaft 18,by reason of the width of the blade-seats on the holder, as shown in l' ig. 6, the blade tilting about the central collar 33 and within the seat 34. g This is provided in order that when the blade is pre sented to the sharpening member it may accommodate itself tangentially thereto at the point of contact, in order to get the best results, and also to obviate the effect of any slight irregularity in the sharpening surface.

Release of the blade is eflected by pulling the locking disk 27 outward, releasing that end of the blade, and permitting the opera, tor to lift the blade out of the holder.-

To sharpen the blade the operator grasps the handle 2 and rolls the frame back and A similarly flanged ill forth upon a firm, Lliat surface, the initial r0 'tative movement of the carriers causing the gearing 7 23, to swing the blade-holder in the direction of movement of the frame, presenting the cutting; edge of the blade against the surface of the sharpening member 17. The rotation of the latter and its traversing movement along the edge of the blade sharpens the latter rapidlyand accurately, whether the blade be thick or thin. When the direction of movement of the frame is reversed the sharpening member ceases to rotate, but the train of gearing instantly oscillates the shaft 18 and thereby reverses the blade-holder, swin 'ing the blade in a circular path over said shaft and down upon the sharpening member at the other side of its center. This reversal of the blade takes place before the sharcening member begins to rotate in the reverse direction, so that it is impossible for the sharpening; member to turn toward the cutting edge of the blade. As soon as the blade is brought against the shar ening surface the angular movement of the lade-- holder is stopped, and then the inion 20 revolves upon the shaft 18 during t e continued movement of the frame.

t will be manifest that my sharpening apparatus may be used with different forms of llat blades by inercl ticular shape of the blade to be sharpened.

ln practice the surface of the roll 13 will be covered with leather, and the spirally arranged sharpening member will be mounted thereon, so that if the edge of a blade should accidentally come in contact with the roll when being handled the edge would not be injured.

Various changes in details of construction and arrangement may be made by those skilled in the art Without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention as expressed in the appended claims.

.l-laving fully described my invention, what l claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent ic:-

1,. in a blade-sharpening device, a rotatable member having a spirally-arranged sharpening surface thereon, means to effect rotation of said member by bodily movement above; a plane surface, a l)l&(l6-ll0ld0l'; a frame in which it and the rotatable member are mounted, a handle attached to the frame, andmeans independent of the handle to automatically reverse the blade-holder before a change in they direction of rotation of the sharpening surface is ell'ected.

2. in a blade-sharpening device, a frame provided with a handle, rotatable supporting carriers for the frame, a spiral sharpening member rotatably mounted in .the frame, means to rotate said member by movement of the carriers upon a plane surface, a bladeholder mounted in theframe adjacent the p r cl'ianging the locking devi suhicicntly to accommodate the par sharpening member, and means to auto niatically reverse the blade-holdcr by a change in the direction of rotation of the carriers and prior to. a change in the direction of rotation of said sharpening member.

3. In a blade-sharpening device, a cylindrical spiral sharpener, means to effect rotation thereof'by bodily movement above aplane surface, a blade holder, means thereon to permit the blade to tilt in the direction of its length to adapt its edge to the surface of the sharpener, a frame in which the latter and the blade-holder are mounted, a handle attached to, the frame, and means inde pendent of the handle to'automa tically reverse the blade-holder before a change in the direction of rotation of the sharpener is effected.

l in a device of the class described, a holder for the blade to be sharpened, a shar ening member, means including rotatab e carriers to rotate said member and cause it to act with a traversing movement along the edge of the bladefrom one to the other end thereof, first in one and then in the other direction, and connections between the blade holder and the carriers, operating to automatically reverse the blade-holder at each reversal of movement of the sharpening member and apply the blade tangentially thereto.

5. In a device, of the class described, a spiral sharpening member, means to rotate it first in one and then in the other direction, a holder, meansthereon to retain the blade to be sharpened While permittingdimited movement of the blade to seat itself tangentially upon the sharpening member, and means to automatically reverse the bladeholder at each reversal of rotation of the sharpening member and press the blade against said member to be 'actedupon and sharpened.

6. in a device of the class described, a holder for the blade to be sharpened, to present the blade tangr-antially to the sharpening member, said sharpening member, and means to move it to act upon successive portions of the edge of theblade from one to the other end thereof.

'7. In a device of the class described, a sharpenin member, a holder to present the blade to be sharpened tangentially to the sharpening member, means to rotate the latter first in one and then in the other direc ion and cause it to act upon successive pertions of the edge of, the blade from one to the other end thereof, said means including a rotatable member having a lost motion connection With the sharpening member, and a separate connection between said rotatable member and the blade-holder to automatically reverse the blade-holder before rotation of the sharpening member is reversed.

8. In a deviceof the class describedJa cylinder, a spiral sharpening member fixedly nmunted thereon, means to rotate the cylinder first in one and then in the other direction, a rocking holder for the blade to be sharpened, to present the edge of the blade tangentially to the sharpening member, a frame on which the cylinder, rotating means tl'ierefor, and the blade-holder are all mount- I ed, a handle fixedly attached to the frame,

and means connected with and actuated by the cylinder-rotating means to automatically reverse the blade-holder at each reversal of rotation of the cylinder and apply the blade to the spiral sharpening member.

1 Ina device of the class described, a cylindrical spiral, rotatable sharpening member, means to rotate it firstin one and then in the other direction, said means including a rotatable member having an attached gear, a holder for the blade to be sharpened, and means connected with and operated by said gear to reverse said holder at each reversal of rotation of the sharpening member and press the edge of the blade tangentially upon said sharpening member, the latter acting With a combined rotary and traversing movement upon the blade.

. 10. In a device of the class described, a holder having a central, radial seat to loosely receive the back of the blade, means to cooperate with the ends of the blade to be sharpened and retain it in the holder While permitting commodate itself to the sharpening surface, sharpening means to act With a combined rotary and traversing movement upon the edge of the blade, (and means to automaticallycause the holder to present first one and slight play of the blade'to acthen the other face of the blade to the actionof the sharpening means. r

11. In a device of the class described,

sharpening means to act with a combined rotary and traversing movement upon the edge of the blade to be sharpened, a holder having'radial seats to loosely receive the back of the blade, and devices to engage the ends of the blade and lock it in the seats While permitting a slight movement to accommodate the edge to the sharpening surface, and means to automatically change the face of the blade to be acted upon Whenever the rotary and traversing movement 'of the sharpening means is changed, whereby first one and then the other face of the blade is brought into cooperation with the sharpening means, v

n testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

Witnesses: i

TnoMAs J. DRUMMOND, ELlZABETH R. MORRISON.

JAMES i LESLIE. 

